Customer centricity: How to align company vision with customer reality for a successful CX

It's a common scenario in today's business landscape: many companies proudly proclaim their commitment to listening to customers and promising an optimal customer experience. They invest in branding that touts customer-centric values, launch marketing campaigns emphasizing their dedication to customer satisfaction, and publicly pledge to put the customer first. However, there often exists a significant disconnect between these lofty visions and the practical realities of how these companies operate.

This article shows you the challenges for companies to fulfill the brand promise and steps to solve it.

Understanding the misalignment between vision and operation

This disconnect is most evident in the misalignment between the stated goals and the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and reward systems set for teams and employees. While the company's vision may prioritize customer-centricity, the KPIs and reward structures frequently tell a different story. Here's where the problem lies:

• Misaligned Metrics: In many organizations, KPIs tend to focus heavily on short-term financial targets, operational efficiencies, and productivity metrics. These metrics, while important, may not necessarily reflect the true essence of a customer-centric approach. When employees are primarily evaluated based on sales quotas, cost-cutting goals, or other internal benchmarks, they may prioritize these metrics over customer satisfaction.
• Incentives that Encourage the Wrong Behavior: When teams and employees are rewarded solely based on hitting specific KPIs, they may adopt behaviors that prioritize these numbers at the expense of the customer experience. For example, customer service representatives might rush through calls to meet call volume targets rather than providing thorough assistance. Sales teams might prioritize closing deals quickly, potentially neglecting the customer's long-term needs.
• Lack of Customer-Centric KPIs: Many organizations fail to establish clear KPIs directly related to customer satisfaction, loyalty, or feedback. Instead, they measure internal operational metrics that, while necessary, may not directly correlate with a positive customer experience.
• Limited Focus on Employee Training and Empowerment: Even if a company's vision emphasizes customer-centricity, the lack of training, resources, and empowerment for employees to truly understand and meet customer needs can hinder the translation of this vision into action.
• Silos and Lack of Cross-Functional Collaboration: In larger organizations, different departments often operate in silos with their own objectives. This can lead to a lack of coordination and communication, resulting in an inconsistent customer experience.

Organizational challenges in becoming user-centric:

Becoming user-centric as a company can be challenging, and there are several problems that you may encounter along the way. Here are some common problems:?

1. Resistance to change: One of the biggest challenges of becoming user-centric is resistance to change. Employees may be used to working in a certain way and may be resistant to changing their processes.?
2. Lack of user data: Another challenge is a lack of user data. Without data, it's difficult to understand the user's needs and pain points.
3. Siloed departments: Siloed departments can be a barrier to user-centricity. Departments may be focused on their own goals and not on the user's needs.?
4. Lack of leadership support: Without leadership support, it can be difficult to implement user-centricity across the organization.?
5. Inadequate resources: Becoming user-centric requires resources, including time, money, and personnel.?

To bridge this disconnect, companies must take proactive steps to align their vision, brand promises, and KPIs with their actual commitment to customer-centricity. This includes:

1. Know your customer
2. Reevaluate KPIs
3. Reward Customer-Centric Behavior
4. Investing in Training
5. Break Down Silos

In essence, it's vital for companies to bridge the gap between their customer-centric vision and the operational realities of their business. Only by aligning KPIs, reward systems, and day-to-day practices with the promise of an optimal customer experience can organizations truly deliver on their commitment to listening to customers and standing out in today's competitive market.

Becoming user-centric as an organization is a crucial step towards success in today's market. User-centricity means putting the user at the center of everything you do, from product design to customer service. It requires commitment and effort. By defining your user, involving users in the design process, creating a user-centered culture, using data to inform decisions, and continuously improving, you can become a user-centric organization that delivers products and services that meet the needs of your users.

By overcoming resistance to change, gathering user data, breaking down silos, getting leadership support, and allocating resources, you can become a user-centric organization that delivers products and services that meet the needs of your users.

Steps you can take to become a user-centric organization:

1. Really know your customer: The first step towards user-centricity is to define your user. Who are they? What are their needs and goals? What are their pain points? Conduct user research to answer these questions and create user personas that represent your target audience. It is not a one time job to be done, update your customer-insights periodically. To overcome this, conduct user research to gather data on your users. Use this data to create user personas and inform your product design and marketing decisions.?Involve users in the design process from the beginning. Conduct user testing and gather feedback on your designs. Use this feedback to iterate and improve your designs.
2. Create a user-centered culture: Creating a user-centered culture means making user-centricity a part of your organization's values and beliefs. Encourage employees to think about the user in everything they do. Celebrate successes that are driven by user-centricity. Make sure employee goals do not conflict with a customer-centric way of working. Consider revising KPIs to include customer-focused metrics such as Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), or Customer Effort Score (CES). Ensure that these metrics are not just collected but are actively used to inform decisions and improvements. Encourage cross-functional collaboration to ensure that various departments work together seamlessly to create a consistent and outstanding customer experience. Create cross-functional teams that are focused on the user's needs. Encourage collaboration and communication between departments. Equip employees with the skills and knowledge needed to understand and meet customer needs effectively. Empower them to make customer-centric decisions in their day-to-day work. To overcome this, it's important to communicate the benefits of user-centricity and involve employees in the process. Show them how user-centricity can improve the customer experience and ultimately benefit the company.
3. Use data to inform decisions: Analyze user behavior and feedback to identify areas for improvement. Use this data to make informed decisions about product design, marketing, and customer services. Prioritize user-centric initiatives and allocate resources accordingly. Make user-centricity a part of the company's strategic plan and budget and make it measurable. To overcome this, educate leadership on the benefits of user-centricity and show them how it can improve the bottom line. Get leadership buy-in and support for user-centric initiatives.
4. Continuously improve: User-centricity is not a one-time effort. It requires continuous improvement. Regularly gather feedback from users and use it to improve your products and services.

In conclusion, the journey towards becoming a user-centric organization is not just a choice; it's a necessity in today's competitive market. By embracing the principles of user-centricity, an organization can truly align itself with its customers, foster loyalty, and achieve long-term success. The steps outlined in this blog, from defining your user and involving them in the design process to creating a user-centered culture, using data to drive decisions, and maintaining a commitment to continuous improvement, serve as a comprehensive roadmap for transformation.

However, we must also acknowledge that this transformation isn't without its challenges. Resistance to change, a lack of user data, siloed departments, a lack of leadership support, and resource constraints are common hurdles that organizations may encounter. Yet, these challenges can be overcome through effective communication, data-driven strategies, cross-functional collaboration, leadership alignment, and strategic resource allocation.

In this pursuit of user-centricity, organizations have a valuable ally in OrangeValley. With their expertise and solutions, they can play a pivotal role in guiding businesses through these challenges and helping them achieve their user-centric aspirations. It's a partnership that can make all the difference in delivering products and services that truly resonate with users, driving growth and success in the ever-evolving marketplace.

Remember, becoming user-centric is not just a destination but an ongoing journey. It's a commitment to understanding, serving, and evolving with your users, ensuring that their needs remain at the heart of everything you do. Embrace this path, and your organization will be well-equipped to thrive in an environment where user-centricity is the key to lasting relevance and prosperity.